Travelling to Us for a Children’s Frame Fitting

Quick answer: Most children’s frame fittings can be done in a single visit — eye examination and dispensing appointment back to back, usually inside two hours. Families travel to us from across Scotland, most often when a fit has been difficult elsewhere. If your local practice holds the size your child needs, go there instead; the journey is only worth making when the fitting itself is the problem.

We are asked this reasonably often, usually by a parent who has been given our name by a hospital clinic or another practice and is trying to work out whether a round trip from Ayr, Stirling or Edinburgh is a sensible use of a school day. This page is the honest answer.

When it is not worth travelling

It is worth starting here. If your child needs a straightforward prescription in a standard frame and your local independent practice fits it well, there is no argument for driving past them. Good paediatric dispensing exists all over Scotland and we are not going to pretend otherwise.

Nor is a long journey the right answer if what you need is a repair on a frame that fits perfectly well. A broken strap does not justify a hundred-mile drive, and if you are outside easy reach of Glasgow it is worth calling us on 0141 943 3300 before setting off — we can often tell you from a photograph whether it is something your own practice can do in five minutes.

When it usually is

The pattern is consistent enough that we can describe it. Families travel to us when the fit, rather than the prescription, is the problem.

• A baby, or a child under two. Baby A is a 35mm eye size at 6.3 grams and very few practices hold it, let alone the whole size range around it. Fitting a six-week-old takes considerably longer than fitting an adult and it cannot be rushed or guessed at.
• A face that standard frames do not suit. A low or flat nasal bridge, a narrower head, ears set differently, or all three. Children with Down’s syndrome very commonly have a flatter bridge, and the result is a frame that slides until the child is looking over the top of the lens rather than through it. We hold both the adjustable-bridge Tomato range and Erin’s World by Specs4Us, which is built around that facial profile from the outset, and we decide between them with the frame on the child rather than in advance from a chart.
• A myopia control lens that has to sit precisely. MiYOSMART, MiYOSMART iQ, Stellest, Stellest 2.0 and SightGlass Vision DOT all place a clear central zone in front of the pupil with a treatment structure around it. A frame that slips takes the treatment out of position along with the correction, and nobody notices, because it does not announce itself.
• Two or three frames that have already failed. If you have been told nothing will stay on your child’s face, we would like the opportunity to disagree — and that is a conversation that needs the full fitting set in the room.

What one visit covers

Where possible we run the eye examination and the dispensing appointment back to back, so that a family travelling any distance leaves with everything settled rather than coming back a week later.

The eye examination is carried out by one of our optometrists. For a young child much of it does not look like a conventional eye test — picture-matching charts rather than letters, an assessment of how the eyes work together, and a prescription determined objectively by retinoscopy, which does not rely on the child answering anything at all.

The dispensing appointment follows immediately with one of our three dispensing opticians. Your child’s face is measured, and the frame is chosen from the full range held in stock rather than from what happens to be on a shelf. Allow around two hours for both together, and more if your child is very young or if we are working through several options. We would rather take the time than send you home to find out whether it stays on.

Tell us when you book that you are travelling, and we will schedule it accordingly. Call 0141 943 3300 and say so on the phone — it changes how we build the appointment.

Getting here

We are at 72 Drymen Road, Bearsden, Glasgow G61 2RH, directly opposite Bearsden train station.

By train. Bearsden is on the Milngavie branch, half-hourly from Glasgow Queen Street low level, a little under half an hour. From Edinburgh, Stirling or Perth, that means a single change at Queen Street. The practice is across the road from the platform, which is genuinely useful when you are arriving with a buggy and a toddler and no interest in a further walk.

By car. There is a private car park for patients. From the M8 or the M80, Bearsden is roughly twenty minutes from central Glasgow outside rush hour. From Ayrshire, Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire the practice is straightforward to reach on the motorway network; from Stirling and the north, the A809 runs into Bearsden directly — Drymen Road is the A809.

By bus. Bus stops serve Drymen Road in both directions.

What to bring

• Any current glasses, including ones that have stopped fitting — how a frame has failed tells us a great deal.
• Your child’s current prescription if it was issued somewhere else, and the date of their last eye examination.
• Any hospital or orthoptic correspondence you have, if your child is under the care of an eye department. You do not need a referral letter to make the appointment, but the clinical detail helps.
• Your child’s NHS optical voucher if one has already been issued. If not, we will sort it at the appointment.
• Something to occupy a sibling. We are not precious about it.

If travelling is not realistic

Some families genuinely cannot make the journey, and it is better to say what we can and cannot do than to leave it vague. Adjustments and repairs need the frame and, usually, the child. What we can do at a distance is talk it through: call 0141 943 3300, or email our dispensing opticians at dispensing@peterivins.co.uk with a photograph, and we will tell you honestly whether it is something we need to see or something your own practice can handle.

Questions we are asked about this

How far do families actually travel to you?

Most come from Bearsden, Milngavie, Glasgow and across East Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire, Lanarkshire and Ayrshire. A smaller number travel from Stirling, Perthshire, Edinburgh, Argyll and occasionally the Highlands — almost always because a fitting has been difficult closer to home, or because a hospital clinic has suggested it.

Can the eye test and the frame fitting be done on the same day?

Yes, and we schedule it that way for anyone travelling. Tell us on the phone that you are coming a distance and we will book the eye examination and the dispensing appointment back to back, so you leave with everything settled rather than returning a week later.

How long should we allow?

Around an hour for the examination and the fitting together, and more if your child is very young or we are working through several frames. It is better to allow too long than to rush a fitting — a frame adjusted in a hurry is a frame you bring back.

Do we need a referral letter to come?

No. You can book directly on 0141 943 3300, and there is no charge for the eye examination in Scotland. If a hospital clinic or another practice has suggested us, bring any correspondence you have — it is useful — but do not wait for a formal letter before making the appointment.

Booking

Call 0141 943 3300 and tell us where you are travelling from, or book online. Full detail on the range, sizes and pricing is on our Tomato Glasses guide, and our Scotland page covers what we hold and who we see.